Key controlled card selector with means to prevent simultaneous operation of adjacent keys

ABSTRACT

Means controlled by a desired key is provided in a key operated device to prevent unintentional operation of the keys closely adjacent and at opposite sides of said desired key when the latter is manually operated, and means being especially adapted for use with an index card selector wherein each card is selected by a key and pulled into view with some of the other cards below it while other cards above the selected card are held against movement, thereby to ensure proper selection of the desired card with a minimum of possibility of tearing the cards.

United States Patent [11] 3,818,622 Beger June 25, 1974 [54] KEY CONTROLLED CARD SELECTOR 3,167,37l l/l965 Parcher et al. 40/78.05 X

ggg z fggggggigag OF FOREIGN PATENTS 0R APPLICATIONS 4 A JACENT KEYS 1,154,437 9/1963 Germany 0/104 01 [75] Inventor: Richard E. Beger, Point Pleasant, Primary Examiner-Robert W. Michell Assistant Examiner.l. H. Wolfe [73] Assignee: The Bates Manufacturing Company, Attorney Agent or F"m Harry Rook Orange, NJ. [22] Filed: Mar. 26, 1973 [57] ABsTjRAcT Means controlled by a desired key Is provIded In a key [21] Appl' N05 3449948 operated device to prevent unintentional operation of the keys closely adjacent and at opposite sides of said [52 U.S. Cl. 40/104.01 desired key when the latter is manually Operated, n 51 Int. Cl B42f 21/00 means being especially adapted for use with an index 58 Field of Search 40/l04.01, 104 A, 68.4, card Selector wherein each card is selected y a y 40/7805 336 and pulled into view with some of the other cards below it while other cards above the selected card are 5 References Cited held against movement, thereby to ensure proper se- UNITED STATES PATENTS lection of the desired card with a minimum of possibility of tearing the cards. 2,536,544 l/l95l Gordemer 40/l04.0l 2,968,l l0 l/l96l Quarnstrom 5 Claims, 18 Drawing Figures PATENTED JUN 2 51974 SHEET 1 OF 3 @N Q R Q f I v;

w Emm N khwwmw PATENTED JUNZ 5 I974 SHEET 3 BF 3 KEY CONTROLLED CARD SELECTOR WITH MEANS TO PREVENT SIMULTANEOUS OPERATION OF ADJACENT KEYS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates in general to apparatus controlled by manually operable keys that have means to prevent unintentional operation of more than one of a plurality closely spaced adjacent keys, and more particularly the invention is concerned with so-called list finders or index devices wherein a desired card is selected from a stack of cards in a housing and is springpushed edgewise through an opening in the housing into exposed position with some of the cards below it, while other cards above it are positively held against movement under control of the same key so there is a possibility of faulty card selection and tearing of some of the cards if two keys are operated simultaneously.

Various types of devices have been in key-controlled apparatus such as computing machines, vending machines, etc. prevent operation of more than one key at a time, but they are complicated and expensive, and I do not know of any card-selecting device which is constructed to prevent simultaneous manual operation of two or more closely spaced keys and thereby ensure accurate selection and pushing of only the desired card into exposed position and at the same time ensure the holding against movement of only and all of the cards above the selected card.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A primary object of the invention is to provide novel and improved simple and inexpensive means selectively controlled by manual operation of each key of a plurality of keys arranged in closely spaced side-by-side relation to prevent simultaneous operation of a selected key and the next adjacent keys at opposite sides of the key that is selected or desired or proper.

Another object of the invention is to provide such means in a card-selecting device of the type hereinbefore generally described whereby it shall be impossible to operate the card-pushing and card-holding means associated with any key other than the key desired or proper to select and expose the particular or wanted card, thereby to ensure against faulty selection of and tearing or otherwise damaging the cards.

The invention also contemplates the mounting of keyblocking means on the housing for a stack of cards so that at least one portion thereof is movable by the desired key lever upon card-selecting movement of the lever into the normal path of the card-selecting movements of the adjacent key levers at opposite sides of the desired key lever so as to block the card-selecting movements of said adjacent keys.

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For a more complete understanding of the invention, reference should be had to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of an index device embodying the invention with a portion of the top wall of the housing removed to illustrate the key levers and the blocking means therefor, the parts being shown in their normal positions with the drawer closed.

FIG. 2 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view approximately on the plane of the line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a transverse vertical sectional view approximately on the plane of the line 3-3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary vertical longitudinal sectional view approximately on the plane of the line 44 of FIG. 1, showing a desired key lever in its cardselecting position and illustrating the key lever blocking means in position'to prevent movement of the adjacent keys at opposite sides of the desired key;

FIG. 5 is a similar view on the plane of the line 55 of FIG. 1, showing the blocking means in another position;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged detached positive view of the blocking means shown in FIGS. 1 through 5, inclusive;

FIG. 7 is a fregmentary plan view in general similar to a portion of FIG. 1 showing another form of key lever blocking means embodying the invention, with the parts in normal position;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view on the plane of the line 88 of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a similar view showing one of the key levers in card-selecting position and the blocking means preventing card-selecting movement of the adjacent key levers;

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary longitudinal vertical sectional view on the plane of the line 10-10 of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a transverse vertical sectional view through the key end of the housing showing another modification of the key blocking means disposed at the key ends of the levers instead of at the card lifting ends as shown in FIGS. I through 5, inclusive;

FIG. 12 is an enlarged fragmentary longitudinal sectional view on the plane of the line 12-12 of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a view similar to FIG. 12 showing a further modification of the key lever blocking means;

FIG. 14 is a view similar to FIG. 7 showing another modification of the key blocking means with the parts in normal position;

FIG. 15 is a fragmentary transverse sectional view on the plane of the line l5-l5 of FIG. 14;

FIG. 16 is a similar view showing one of the new levers in card-selecting position and the blocking means blocking the card-selecting movements of the adjacent levers;

FIG. 17 is a view similar to FIG. 14 showing a modified blocking means, and

FIG. 18 is a fragmentary sectional view on the plane of the line l8l8 of FIG. 14.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS For the purpose of illustrating the principles of the invention, it has been shown in connection with the telephone index described and claimed in my co-pending application Ser. No. 227,564 filed Feb. 17, 1972, now US. Pat. No. 3,721,485 but the invention is adaptable to use in connection with the other key-operated devices.

Specifically describing the illustrated embodiment of the invention, the reference character A designates the housing of the index device which has a top wall 1, two parallel side walls 2 and 3, a front end wall 4 and a rear end wall 5. The front wall has an opening 6 into and out of which is horizontally slidable a drawer B on the bottom wall 7 of which are horizontally stacked a plurality of data bearing sheets, for example, cards 8. In accordance with the invention, the number of cards can be varied, but in the embodiment shown, there are eleven cards to be used as a telephone index, each of the cards bearing alphabetical initials 8a, several of the cards having two initials and each of the other cards bearing three initials, and the housing has a raised panel index 13 on which are printed or otherwise applied a plurality of groups of alphabetical letters generally designated 14 in FIGS. 1, 2 and 11 and each corresponding to one of the cards.

The rear edges of the cards are notched or cut away, the depth of the notches 8b being the same for all cards but the notches increasing in width successively from the right hand side edges and from the uppermost card toward the bottom card, viewing the cards from the rear edges as best shown in FIGS. 1 and 3. In the present instance the top card of the stack bears the alphabetical initial letters A and B and the card is arranged on the top of the stack.

The drawer is releasably locked in closed position by a U-shaped latch C having its ends pivotally mounted at 16 in the side walls of the housing and having a bar 17 intermediate its ends normally biased into keeper notches 18 opening through the edges of ribs 19 that project upwardly from the bottom wall of the drawer as best shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4. While the latch is shown as gravitationally biased into the notches, spring means could be utilized. When the drawer is in its closed and locked position, the bases of the notches in the cards abut a cards aligner 20 that depends from the top wall of the housing as best shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and the cards are yieldingly held in engagement with the cards aligner by any suitable card pusher D indicated in FIG. 2 which forms no part of the present invention and may be the same as that of the pusher D in my pending application Ser. No. 227,564.

A card selecting key lever E is provided for each card, and as shown, each key lever comprises a bar 26 pivotally intermediate its ends on a pivot rod 27 whose ends are supported on the side walls of the housing. Each key lever has at its front end which is nearer than the rear end to said pivot rod a manually operable key 28 which projects upwardly through an opening 29 in the top wall of the housing in juxtaposition to the indicia or alphabetical initials for the corresponding card appearing on the index panel 13. At its other and rear end each key lever bar has a depending portion 30 from which projects a longitudinal extension 31 that normally underlies the latch bar 17. Each of the cards ex cept the top card has a transverse hole 32 adjacent its notch normally in register with the holes in the other cards, and the second-mentioned or rear end of each key lever has another extension 31a on which is a stud 33 to extend into said holes during the cardselecting operation so as to hold against movement with the drawer all of the cards above the one selected. The extension 31a of said second-mentioned rear end of the key lever also has projecting portions at opposite sides of the stud which'coact with a card puller F for the corresponding card.

As shown, each card puller has a shank portion 36 pivotally mounted at 37 on a pivot rod 38 which ex tends transversely of the drawer and is supported by partition walls 39 between which are located the card pullers as best shown in FIG. 2. The partition walls also serve to support the rear edge portions of the cards. The shank of each card puller is bent upwardly at its swinging end as indicated at 36a and has a card engaging lip 40 and a pair of spaced apart arms 41 projecting in the opposite direction from the lip and receiving between them the stud 33 of the corresponding key lever with the extensions 31a of the key lever underlying said arms. Each card puller normally and when the drawer is closed, has its lip 40 and arms 41 disposed below the bottom card as best shown by FIG. 2 and with the lip in spaced relation to the bases of the notches in the corresponding cards as shown in FIG. 1.

When it is desired to select a card, the proper key 28 is manually depressed which causes the rear end of the key lever to rise so that the extension 31 elevates the card puller into a position with the lip slightly above the top surface of the corresponding card at the notched edge thereof. Approximately simultaneously the extension 31 of the key lever raises the latch bar 17 out of the latch notches 18 to release the drawer for opening movement by spring biased means G (FIGS. 1 and 2). As the drawer starts its movement outwardly, the notched edges of the cards are moved away from the card aligner 20 and the card pusher D slides the cards inwardly of the drawer so that the notched edge of the selected card is pushed beneath the lip of the card puller as best shown in FIGS. 1 and 4.

Simultaneously with the elevation of the card puller the stud 33 of the key lever is inserted through the holes 32 of all of the cards above the selected card, which here is an intermediate card in the stack, as best shown in FIG. 4, and the selected card with all of the cards beneath it move outwardly of the housing opening 6 with the drawer so as to expose the selected card which appears as the top one of the cards that are moved outwardly with the drawer.

To ensure that the cards above the selected card shall be held against inadvertent movement, the key lever is prevented from returning to its normal position until the drawer is again closed. To accomplish this result a slide G is mounted in the side walls of the housing between the inner end of the drawer and the rear wall 5 of the housing, and when the drawer is opened the slide is automatically projected into a position beneath the extension 31 of the lever. The slide is normally biased by a coil spring H the coil 42 of which is mounted on a post 43 that depends from the top wall of the housing, with the end portions 41 of the spring engaging abutments 45 on the slide.

This slide serves also to normally bias the drawer toward open position. As here shown, when the drawer is pushed into closed position, its rear edge 46 abuts the forward edge 47 of the slide so that when the drawer is fully closed the slide is pushed against the action of the spring toward the housing rear wall as shown in FIG. 3. Thus, when the drawer is closed, the slide is continuously biased toward the drawer and upon unlocking of the drawer, the slide pushes the drawer toward open position. This action may be such as to completely open the drawer or to only start the opening movement and leave the completion of the drawer opening to manual manipulation.

Any suitable means are provided to limit the opening of the drawer for example as shown in my aforesaid patent application Ser. No. 227,564.

It is desirable to provide resilient means on the housing, in addition to the pivotal mounting of the levers, to normally bias the key levers into normal position with said longitudinal extensions and said studs below the plane of the bottom card in the stack. As shown, a block of resilient material such as polyurethane foam 50 may be adhesively secured to the underside of the housing top wall and yieldingly engaging the top edges of the key levers.

Desirably also, each key has a portion 51 to underlie and abut the housing top wall and limit movement of the key lever into said normal position or the extension 31 may simply abut the bottom wall of the drawer.

As clearly appears from the drawings and the foregoing description, the keys are arranged in such closely spaced relation to each other that it is possible especially in case of careless operation of the desired key by the operators fingers, the keys adjacent and at opposite sides of the desired key might be unintentionally simultaneously operated and thereby possibly cause tearing or other mutilation of some of the cards by the studs 32 or by the card pullers, or interfere with proper selection of the desired card, during outward movement of the drawer. The invention provides means to reduce or overcome such possibility of simultaneous operation of key levers and thus to reduce or overcome both the possibility of damage to the cards and the possibility of interference with proper card selection.

A preferred form of blocking means is shown in FIGS. 1 to 6 inclusive and comprises an elongated part J preferably formed of sheet metal and mounted in the housing transversely of and above said key levers and having a plurality of contiguous U-shaped portions 52 extending alternately at opposite sides of a common line longitudinally of the part in angular relation to each other and toward the key levers, the arms of each portion preferably having direct connections with the arms of the next adjacent portions which connections are in alignment with each other along said common imaginary line longitudinally of said part, as indicated at 53.

The part J is mounted in the housing for pivotal movement along said common line of said connections as an axis, said part5 preferably abutting along said line of connections the inner side of the top wall of the housing and having outwardly facing arcuate pivot seats 54 at its ends loosely engaging cylindrical projections 55 on the housing so that each U-shaped portion normally overlies one lever when the lever is in neutral or normal position so as to be in the path of said lever during cardselecting movement of said lever and to permit said lever to move in the space between the arms of said U-shaped portion, as best shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 where all of the parts of the index are shown in their normal positions. With this construction, it will be seen that when a selected key lever is operated from its normal position shown in FIG. 2 through its cardselecting movement the end of which is shown in FIG. 4, the blocking means, that is, the part J, is swung by engagement of the lever with its corresponding U- shaped portion 52 from the normal position shown in FIG. 2 into the position shown at 26' in FIG. 4, and in this position the card-selecting lever is disposed be tween the arms of said U-shaped portion and the other U-shaped portions corresponding to the key levers next adjacent the card-selecting lever at both sides thereof are moved into the path of the card-selecting movement of said adjacent levers indicated at 26 that are disposed at opposite sides of the card-selecting lever so as to prevent card-selecting movement of said adjacent levers. When the card-selecting lever is released to its normal position in the manner hereinbefore described, the part J is again swung into its normal position shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 5 is shown the relationship of another of the U-shaped portions with its corresponding lever which is shown at the end of its card-selecting movement as indicated at 26". It will thus be seen that when any one of the levers is operated into its card-selecting position, the two levers next adjacent to and at both sides of the card-selecting lever are positively held by the corresponding U-shaped portions of the part J against card-selecting movement.

FIGS. 7, 8, 9 and 10 illustrate a modification of the blocking means K which comprises a plurality of rigid portions K arranged in side-by-side relation and aligned transversely of the key levers L that are shown as identical with the key levers E, each portion having its ends normally abuttingly overlying two levers that are next adjacent to each other, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. Each portion is bent intermediate its ends into angular shape with its included angle facing downwardly toward the levers and also has a slot 56 transverse of the angle through which extends a stud 57 depending from the top wall 58 of the housing so that said portion is tiltable on the stud and also movable longitudinally of the stud.

In operation, when a selected key lever is operated from its normal position into a card-selecting position as indicated'at L in FIG. 9, the two portions K whose ends overlie said lever are simultaneously tilted and pressed against the top wall 58 of the housing and positively held with their ends in the paths of card-selecting movement of the adjacent levers I at opposite sides of said desired lever, thereby to prevent card-selecting movements of said adjacent levers.

In FIGS. ll, 12 and 13, the blocking means M and N are shown as comprising rollable portions (balls M 1 in FIG. 11 and rollers M in FIG. 13) mounted on the respective track grooves 59 and 60 in the top sections 61 and 62 of the housing which extend transversely of the corresponding key levers O and P between the keys 65 and 66 and the lever pivots only one of which is shown and designated 67 in FIG. 11.

Referring particularly to FIG. 11, there is one ball less than the number of levers and the balls are disposed between two stop walls 68 at the ends of the track groove the distance between which is equal to the sum of the diameters of the balls plus the thickness of a finger 69 of a key lever which extends upwardly in overhanging relation to the balls and is movable into position between two balls when the lever is moved from its normal position into its card-selecting position. All of the levers except the selected card-selecting lever 0 are shown in normal position in FIGS. 11 and 12, while the card-selecting lever is shown in cardselecting position by solid lines in FIG. 11 and by dot and dash lines in FIG. 12. It will be understood that normally any desired key lever can be freely moved individually into card-selecting position, its finger 69 being thereby moved between two balls and simultaneously pushing and holding the other balls in blocking relation to the fingers 69 of the key levers adjacent and at opposite sides of the selected lever to prevent cardselecting movement of said other levers.

In FIG. 13 the fingers 70 of the key levers P cooperate with the rollers M in substantially the same manner as the fingers 69 cooperate with the balls as abovedescribed.

FIGS. 14, l5, l6 and 18 illustrate another modification of the blocking means which here is denoted Q. It includes a flexible tape 72 which extends transversely of and above the key levers R with its ends fixedly secured to bosses 73 on the side walls of the housing. The tape normally lies on the top sides of the key levers R and beneath guide fins 72 that depend from the top wall of the housing between the key levers as shown in FIGS. 15 and 18, and preferably is of a length to permit one key lever at a time to be operated into cardselecting position and displace a portion of the tape as indicated at S, in FIG. 16 and at the same time draw the tape tautly over and into contact with the other key levers as indicated at S to prevent card-selecting movement of said other levers.

If desired the blocking means may comprise a flexible cord or wire T, as shown in FIG. 17, mounted and operable in the same way and serving the same purpose as the tape.

All forms of the invention provide effective means for permitting any selected one of a plurality of key levers to be manually manipulated and effect its intended purpose, particularly to select and move a card from a stack, and at the same time prevent unintended operation of the key levers next adjacent to and at opposite sides of the selected key lever, with a minimum of interference with the operation of the selected lever to fulfill its purpose and with a minimum of possibility of damage to the parts of the device and, for example, the articles, in particular cards, under selection.

In the appended claims, for the purpose of simple nomenclature, each portion 52, each portion K each ball M each roller M and each portion of the tape 72 between adjacent guides 74, is referred to by the word portion".

I claim:

1. An index device which comprises a support, a plurality of index cards in stacked relation to each other on said support, a selector key lever for each card comprising a bar pivotally mounted intermediate its ends on said support, means normally biasing each said key lever in one direction into neutral position, each said key lever having a key at one end exposed for manual operation to activate the key lever in the opposite direction out of said neutral position for selecting a card, means coacting with another portion of each said key lever upon card-selecting pivotal movement of the key lever in the second-mentioned direction to select and positively move edgewise the corresponding card and the cards below it and hold against movement the other cards above it, said keys being arranged in such closely spaced side-by-side relation that in case of careless manipulation of a selected key by the operators finger the next adjacent keys at opposite sides of the selected key might be unintentionally simultaneously operated the index device being characterized by means including a plurality of portions movably mounted on said support in contiguous and aligned relation transversely of said key levers and normally providing for movement of a selected key lever relative to said portions into a cardselecting position and for simultaneous engagement and movement by said selected key lever of one of said portions to move and hold others of said portions in the normal path of card-selecting movements of the key levers next adjacent to said selected key lever, thereby to prevent card-selecting movements of said adjacent key levers during the card-selecting movement of said selected key lever so as to preclude operation of more than one key lever at one time in said indexing device.

2. An index device as defined in claim 1, said portions being approximately U-shaped with their arms interconnected along a common line transverse of and above said key levers and extending alternately at opposite sides of said line in angular relation to each other toward said key levers, each of said portions normally being in the path of the card-selecting movement of one key lever, providing for movement of any one of said portions by the corresponding selected key lever out of the path of card-selecting movement of said selected key lever and for simultaneous movement of others of said portions positively into the paths of movement of the next adjacent key levers at opposite sides of said selected key lever to block movement of said adjacent key levers.

3. An index device as claimed in claim 2 wherein said support has a wall above said key levers and said portions fulcrum along said line on the under side of said wall.

4. An index device as defined in claim 1 wherein each key lever has a finger to coact with said portions and said portions are separate and have circular peripheral surfaces of equal diameter and are rollable along a track on said support between two end stops spaced apart to pennit a finger on one selected lever at a time to engage and pass between two adjacent portions and hold the other portions in approximately abutting contact with each other between said stops and in the paths of the card-selecting movements of the other key levers to prevent card-selecting movement of said other key levers during said movement of the selected key lever.

5. An index device as defined in claim 1 wherein said portions are separate and rigid and each portion has its ends nonnally abuttingly overlying two key levers that are next adjacent to each other and is bent intennediate its ends into angular shape with its included angle facing downwardly toward the key levers, and each portion also has a slot transverse of the angle through which extends a stud that depends from a wall of the housing, said portion being tiltable on the studs and movable longitudinally of the stud and fulcrummable at its angle on said support. 

1. An index device which comprises a support, a plurality of index cards in stacked relation to each other on said support, a selector key lever for each card comprising a bar pivotally mounted intermediate its ends on said support, means normally biasing each said key lever in one direction into neutral position, each said key lever having a key at one end exposed for manual operation to activate the key lever in the opposite direction out of said neutral position for selecting a card, means coActing with another portion of each said key lever upon card-selecting pivotal movement of the key lever in the secondmentioned direction to select and positively move edgewise the corresponding card and the cards below it and hold against movement the other cards above it, said keys being arranged in such closely spaced side-by-side relation that in case of careless manipulation of a selected key by the operator''s finger the next adjacent keys at opposite sides of the selected key might be unintentionally simultaneously operated the index device being characterized by means including a plurality of portions movably mounted on said support in contiguous and aligned relation transversely of said key levers and normally providing for movement of a selected key lever relative to said portions into a card-selecting position and for simultaneous engagement and movement by said selected key lever of one of said portions to move and hold others of said portions in the normal path of card-selecting movements of the key levers next adjacent to said selected key lever, thereby to prevent card-selecting movements of said adjacent key levers during the card-selecting movement of said selected key lever so as to preclude operation of more than one key lever at one time in said indexing device.
 2. An index device as defined in claim 1, said portions being approximately U-shaped with their arms interconnected along a common line transverse of and above said key levers and extending alternately at opposite sides of said line in angular relation to each other toward said key levers, each of said portions normally being in the path of the card-selecting movement of one key lever, providing for movement of any one of said portions by the corresponding selected key lever out of the path of card-selecting movement of said selected key lever and for simultaneous movement of others of said portions positively into the paths of movement of the next adjacent key levers at opposite sides of said selected key lever to block movement of said adjacent key levers.
 3. An index device as claimed in claim 2 wherein said support has a wall above said key levers and said portions fulcrum along said line on the under side of said wall.
 4. An index device as defined in claim 1 wherein each key lever has a finger to coact with said portions and said portions are separate and have circular peripheral surfaces of equal diameter and are rollable along a track on said support between two end stops spaced apart to permit a finger on one selected lever at a time to engage and pass between two adjacent portions and hold the other portions in approximately abutting contact with each other between said stops and in the paths of the card-selecting movements of the other key levers to prevent card-selecting movement of said other key levers during said movement of the selected key lever.
 5. An index device as defined in claim 1 wherein said portions are separate and rigid and each portion has its ends normally abuttingly overlying two key levers that are next adjacent to each other and is bent intermediate its ends into angular shape with its included angle facing downwardly toward the key levers, and each portion also has a slot transverse of the angle through which extends a stud that depends from a wall of the housing, said portion being tiltable on the studs and movable longitudinally of the stud and fulcrummable at its angle on said support. 